Original Posted By: owner-pietenpol-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-pietenpol-lis
My dad told me that things were less dangerous back then. Cigarettes didn't cause cancer=2C there was no use for airbags=2C drunk driving didn't kill people etc.Do no archiveSubject: RE: Pietenpol-List: Pietenpol BomberDate: Tue=2C 21 Oct 2008 12:58.comAhhh=2C reminds me of the days of my youth=85Back when I was 18=2C my Dad bought a J-3. My brother and I were going to enter it in a flour-sack bombing contest at an airshow in Memphis=2C so we asked a local farmer who had an airstrip if we could practice bombing at his place. He said he=92d rather we=92d use lime than flour so it would do his fields some good and let us go. We started practicing with various altitudes and weren=92t being very successful. I decided to try the dive-bomb approach. I took the Cub up to 1=2C000=92=2C chopped the throttle to idle and stood it on its nose=2C watching the airspeed to keep it out of the redline (125 mph on a Cub). I tossed the bomb out at about 100=92 and pulled back on the stick. You know=2C it takes just about 100=92 to pull a Cub out of a terminal velocity dive. I pointed the nose to the sky and gave it full throttle and it kept going down! It finally began to climb as the tailwheel kissed the grass. I decided right then and there that dive bombing is not my preferred technique. As he was watching this from the saftey of the ground=2C my brother kept wondering =93how am I going to get home if he crashes the airplane?=94The farmer watched us practice day after day and finally said =93Boys=2C I=92ve got 40 acres in watermelons. There are always a few that the crows have pecked holes in that I can=92t sell. I sure would enjoy watching you drop them.=94We took the stick out of the back=2C and my brother flew the Cub from the front seat while I sat in the back with a watermelon under each arm and 3 of them on the floorbards. I made an adjustable bombsight that proved to be pretty accurate=2C as long as the altitude was constant and the wind wasn=92t blowing too hard. I would lean out the door and shout instructions to him=2C as he maintained a constant altitude. I=92d shout =93Left a bit. Steady. Steady. A little bit to the right ' Bomb=92s Away! We got where we could consistently hit a target the size of a car from 500=92. Let me tell you=2C when you drop a watermelon 500=92 it digs a crater about 6=92 in daimeter and a foot deep and just fills it with mud. It throws a shower of mud and dirt about 30=92 in the air. Spectacular!Jack PhillipsNX899JPRaleigh=2C NC